Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Obama Breeds Rebellion Among the States

By Alan
Caruba

The
resistance to Obamacare is writing a new chapter in U.S. history. It may well
become the most unpopular law since Prohibition became an Amendment to the
Constitution in 1919. By 1933, another Amendment repealed it.

Obamacare
passed by a straight Democratic party vote on Christmas Eve in 2009. No
Republican voted for it and, as one poll recently revealed, a third of
Americans are still unaware it is the law of the land. A divided Supreme Court
gave it a pass, calling it a tax, but it is a profoundly unconstitutional law
insofar as the federal government may not pass a law that requires Americans to
purchase something and to fine them
if they do not. It is also playing havoc with the economy, delaying recovery as
it deters hiring and encourages firing.

Nonetheless,
a number of states have gone on record seeking to nullify its enforcement and
some are doing the same as regards gun control. Arizona became famous when it
passed its own immigration law in response to the federal government’s failure
to protect its border with Mexico. The proposed “Gang of Eight” immigration law is facing
stiff opposition for its various provisions, most of which do not address the
central issue of security on the southern border.

How out of
touch is the President? He went to Mexico and blamed the violence arising from
its drug cartels on America, saying “Most of the guns used here to commit
violence came from America.” He made no mention of the scandalous “Fast and
Furious” scheme in which the ATF actually ran guns into Mexico, claiming they
would track them. It took an executive order to throw a blanket of silence over
it and a compliant media to ignore that scandal.

It is,
however, Obamacare that poses the greatest threat to the nation, intruding on
the patient-doctor relationship, robbing billions from Medicare to pay for it, requiring
states to fund more Medicaid when many are strapped to meet other needs, and putting
16% of the nation’s economy under federal control.

A total of
twenty-seven states have filed suit against Obamacare. Two federal judges have
upheld its individual mandate to purchase health insurance and two others have
ruled that it is unconstitutional.

Twelve
states have introduced versions of the Federal Health Care Nullification Act
that was drafted by the Tenth Amendment Center. They include Texas, Montana,
Wyoming, Oregon, Alabama, and Maine. All declare that Obamacare is “hereby
declared to be invalid, shall not be recognized, is specifically rejected, and
shall be considered null and void and of no effect.”

In South Carolina, on May 1st, the state House passed a bill that declares
the bill null and void and goes a step further, criminalizing its
implementation. Earlier Governor Nikki Haley, in her state of the state
address, said that South Carolina does not want and cannot afford Obamacare,
saying of the President’s namesake, “not now, not ever.”

The
following day, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback sent a letter in response to
Attorney General Eric Holder’s opposition to its Second Amendment Protection
Act, declaring it unconstitutional; essentially tell him to piss off. “The
people of Kansas,” said the Governor, “have clearly expressed their sovereign
will.” The same day, Missouri passed a comparable law protecting the Second
Amendment.

Not since
the years leading up to the Civil War was kicked off on December 20, 1860 when
South Carolina voted for secession, has there been such open resistance to the
mandates of the federal government by the states on a range of issues. Earlier,
in 1832, President Andrew Jackson had threatened to send troops to South
Carolina to enforce federal laws.

Nullification,
however, will not succeed as a means to rid the nation of Obamacare. To Obama’s
dismay, his gun control law failed in Congress when even members of his party
joined in voting against it. The fate of immigration reform remains unknown but
it will come to a vote soon enough.

The reason why nullification will fail
is embedded in the Constitution. The Supremacy Clause states “This
Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in
Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the
Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the land; and the
judges in every State shall be found thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or
Laws of any State to the Contrary, notwithstanding.”

That has
not discouraged the legislatures of many states from expressing their
opposition to Obamacare, intrusions on the Second Amendment right of citizens
to bear arms, and to demand the federal government enforce the laws regarding
its borders.

There
isn’t a constitutional scholar that does not support the Supremacy Clause. The
Heritage Foundation has a policy paper on the subject of nullification that says
“there is no clause or implied power in either the national or the various
state constitutions that enables states to veto federal laws unilaterally.”

The
states, though, can express their displeasure and their opposition to federal
laws and that is what lies at the heart of the spate of nullification laws that
have been passed. As sovereign republics, the states can and do express
themselves and, through their elected Senators and Representatives, have the
power in concert to repeal obnoxious and injurious federal laws.

12 comments:

Obamacare is a rich man's law, and a poor man's tyranny. I cannot afford health insurance, I reject the government's right to force me to pay rent on my body in this life, and I will not be forced into Medicaid to comply, nor willingly pay any fine under that law. So long as health insurance is a business, not a human right, with large incomes for those who purvey it, at the expense of the poor who can't afford it and don't want such a false "benefit", it is only tyrannous evil, cynically designed only to fill the federal coffers by taking from the poorest.

Yes, there is the federal supremacy law. But what if the states just plain ignore obamacare? I mean, why shouldn't they? After all, obama ignores every law he does not agree with. Hell, obama and his ilk have ignored their very oath of officer..."To DEFEND and UPHOLD the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA".

What president goes to other countries and blames his own country for every problem? What POS president goes around blaming the country they are supposed to have nothing but the highest esteem for, for every worldly problem, and then tries to apologize and say that America is evil, America is a downright horrible place, and blah blah blah.

What a POS. Yes, America is not perfect, but it is way better than any other country EVER...bar none. Show me any country that has done more in every aspect of human life. Technology, educations, health, business, civil rights, aid to every other country in need, and most of all, FREEDOM.

Show me any that can even hold a candle to the contribution of America.

And for our president to constantly speak poorly of America and its people...well FUCK HIM. (sorry for the language...but it is still not strong enough).

What happened to a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage? Now, it seems it is supposed to be we have to go backwards. Give our chickens to every other lazy two-bit dictator run country and be made to feel guilty about our CO2, mother gaia killing vehicles.

What happened to the constant strive to make life better? To see that every generation is just a little better off than the one before. For the first time, it seems we are going backwards.

Everything this president does seems to be by absolute design. That every harm that comes from all of these new laws and govt actions were somehow intended. It's almost as if the things this president does are what someone would do who WANTS to destroy this country.

Socialism...oh hell, call it what it is...communism seems to be the ultimate desire of this idiot in charge. Gun control is a piece of the puzzle that needs to happen as every govt fears an armed citizenry that can stand up and say "NO" when things have been pushed too far. With our guns removed, I can not help but feel that the worst fears will become reality and the tyrant that is obama will be revealed once there is nothing We The People can do to stop them.

I hope and pray this is all temporary and that I am simply a paranoid nutjob with conspiracy theory syndrome. I will never be so happy to be so wrong. But until the day when obama is out of office and a sensible person, one that LOVES AMERICA, and embraces thet dreams of our fore-fathers, is finally in charge, I will not breath easy.

I think the next four years will tell all of us what our future holds. Will obama leave quietly, and will his regime be retired to the dustbin of history and the people come to their senses and elect someone that will bring out the best America can offer the world? Only time will tell.

I can only hope that a return to love of country is around the corner and all of this mess is behind us. When history will finally judge obama for what he was, a bad dream, a misguided turn that has been corrected. We will see.

Obamacare was Obama's one and only policy which could give him some political credence - especially with his liberal base. The rest of his governance has shown him to be an empty suit - a useless, lazy, Affirmative Action POTUS, who doesn't know the first thing about running a country. While he's been shmoozing with his Obamabots throughout America, his puppet masters have been plotting the demise of the US dollar and the destruction of the country. Billions of bullets bought by Napolitano, for what? The gun-grab, for what? The approval of even more illegal immigrants, for what? All designed to destroy America. And once the dollar finally collapses, Napolitano will be ready with her rounds of ammunition to control the unrest which will ensue. Good luck America!

Obama has followed the Communist Manifesto to a T+: "Create division and chaos.....". He is, undoubtedly, the most divisive President EVER - whites against blacks, christians, military personnel, border patrol agents, mexicans. He has been campaigning since he took office, vacationing a LOT and generally ignoring any real solutions to the problems Americans face. AC and Furnace Filter Manufacturer

This if what the poor man voted for. This its why they insisted on electing BO, this was yhe pour mans turn to select shop they wanted. And the morons did. More they want rip cry over what they chose....slavery. That pods what you get when you chose safety over liberty.

It's not much of a mystery. The oBumaholy hates the American tradition of freedom/responsibility. His goal, to to bring the country to it's knees, and he's done it. oBumaholy-care is just the tip of the iceberg. The greatest weapon of economic destruction the world has ever known (debt) has been used against America magnificently. The most effective pRESIDENT America has ever seen! Unfortunately his goal is the Marxist destruction of freedom/independence. The anti-federalists predicted this hundreds of years ago and weeeee here we go!

It seems to me that if Obamacare is unconstitutional, the argument can be made that Obamacare does not meet the "in pursuance thereof" part of the Supremacy Clause . . . that is, an unconstitutional federal law can _not_ be claimed to be supreme.

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.